Don

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Dont Fail Your Courses Cite Your Sources!

• Shawn V. Lombardo
• Reference Librarian
• Kresge Library
• Oakland University

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Examples of Academic Dishonesty

• Cheating
• Preventing the honest assessment of learning
• Sharing answer keys, using notes, sharing answers
  verbally/electronically
• Furnishing false information
• Writing a paper for someone else
• Copying/sharing answers on assignments or
  material in essays and papers
• Its all individual work unless otherwise stated!
• Never give anyone else your paper!
• Plagiarism
• Using another writers material without citing
• OR using a writers words without quote marks
• Buying/Selling/Stealing/Distributing
• Tests, quizzes, assignments, study guides

From the Student Handbook
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What is Plagiarism?

• Failing to cite quotations and borrowed ideas.
• Failing to enclose borrowed language in quotation
  marks.
• Failing to put summaries and paraphrases in your
  own words.

(Bedford Handbook, 570.)
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When is it Plagiarism?

• Intentional
• Intentional copying/paraphrasing, without
  attribution, in order to pass off anothers work
  as ones own
• Paper sharing/term paper mills
• Unintentional
• Improper paraphrasing
• If I change every 5th word, its not plagiarism,
  right?
• Substituting synonyms but keeping structure
• Unconscious plagiarism
• Not citing properly

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Paraphrasing Is this Plagiarism?

• Original Source
• If the existence of a signing ape was unsettling
  for linguists, it was also startling news for
  animal behaviorists.
• (An excerpt from an article by B. Davis)

• Version A
• The existence of a signing ape unsettled
  linguists and startled animal behaviorists (Davis
  26).

This exercise is from The Bedford Handbook
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Answer A

• Original Source
• If the existence of a signing ape was unsettling
  for linguists, it was also startling news for
  animal behaviorists.

• Version A
• The existence of a signing ape unsettled
  linguists and startled animal behaviorists (Davis
  26).

Answer Plagiarism. Even though the writer has
cited the source, the writer has not used
quotation marks around the direct quotation, "the
existence of a signing ape." In addition, the
phrase, "unsettled linguists and startled animal
behaviorists," closely resembles the wording of
the source.
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Paraphrasing Is this Plagiarism?

• Original Source
• If the existence of a signing ape was unsettling
  for linguists, it was also startling news for
  animal behaviorists.

• Version B
• If the presence of a sign-language-using chimp
  was disturbing for scientists studying language,
  it was also surprising to scientists studying
  animal behavior (Davis 26).

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Answer B

• Original Source
• If the existence of a signing ape was unsettling
  for linguists, it was also startling news for
  animal behaviorists.

• Version B
• If the presence of a sign-language-using chimp
  was disturbing for scientists studying language,
  it was also surprising to scientists studying
  animal behavior (Davis 26).

Answer Still plagiarism. Even though the writer
has substituted synonyms and cited the source,
the writer is plagiarizing because the source's
sentence structure is unchanged.
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Paraphrasing Is this Plagiarism?

• Original Source
• If the existence of a signing ape was unsettling
  for linguists, it was also startling news for
  animal behaviorists.

• Version C
• According to Flora Davis, linguists and animal
  behaviorists were unprepared for the news that a
  chimp could communicate with its trainers through
  sign language (Davis, 26).

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Answer C

• Original Source
• If the existence of a signing ape was unsettling
  for linguists, it was also startling news for
  animal behaviorists.

• Version C
• According to Flora Davis, linguists and animal
  behaviorists were unprepared for the news that a
  chimp could communicate with its trainers through
  sign language (Davis 26).

Answer No plagiarism. This is an appropriate
paraphrase of the original sentence.
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Proper Documentation

• Exact phrases
• Quotation marks around the phrase
• Cite author in the text (authors last name,
  page) include source in your Works Cited.
• Paraphrasing
• Change the wording AND sentence structure
• Cite author in the text include the source on
  your Works Cited page.
• Ideas
• Cite the author in the text include the source
  on your Works Cited page.
• Common knowledge No need to cite